“When everything is available — and previously ephemeral, arcane, or rare footage is only a click away — an appropriate scholarship can only begin by tracing the robust trails of information radiating from any given object.”

“Shep Houghton, who turns 100 today, could shape his era if he wanted. … During a career that stretched from Josef von Sternberg silents to Streisand musicals, Houghton was propositioned by a Munchkin, blew off Lucille Ball, and taught Greta Garbo to waltz.”

“After expanding its season for the fourth year in a row, Houston Grand Opera … projects that its operating budget of about $27.7 million will come out in the black … Ticket sales totaled 92 percent of capacity for the mainstage series.”

“I believe that the basic lack of connoisseurial skills we are faced with in art history is weakening the foundations of the discipline. I may be selfishly delighted when major US museums accidentally de-accession works by Van Dyck or Rubens (it happens more often than you might think), but for the public’s trust in an institution it is a disaster.”

Fabrice Calmels (6’6″) of the Joffrey: “You know, it was a disadvantage for the longest time … being so tall, a lot of the time people didn’t know what to do with me. … I couldn’t show what I was doing and who I really was as a performer because all they would see is that height.”

That’s what the Croatian city of Pula did eight of the mammoth machines. Lighting designer Dean Skira’s Lighting Giants uses 73 LED spotlights that can be programmed to make about 16,000 different patterns. (includes photo essay and video)

“Neuroscientists believe that memory involves the modification of synapses, which connect brain cells, and numerous studies published over the past decade have shown that sleep enhances the consolidation of newly formed memories in people. But exactly how these observations were related was unclear.”

“Patrick Vialaneix is that rare being – a thief motivated by the love of art. He says he fell in love with the painting when he saw it at the age of 13 and regularly visited it from then onwards to stand rapt before the genius of Rembrandt. Finally, he worked out how he could use his skills as a security technician to steal it.”

Microsoft Bob did not endure, but Comic Sans became one of the font options offered on Windows 95, and instantly became a favourite. “It sticks out,” says Connare. “Everything else looks like something traditional that you see in books.”

“The figure is an 11% increase on last year and ensures it keeps its place as the largest arts festival in the world. The overall rise means that while theatre makes up only 27.5% of all productions in the programme, the lowest percentage ever, the 877 theatre shows are 50 more than in 2013 and are still the largest number ever.”

“Somewhere like the Barbican has such a vast array of different data from different types of programming. It has a concert hall, a theatre, an art gallery and a cinema, among others. It will be interesting to see where the gaps are, where we might be able to bridge them and maximise their value.”

“We see that people don’t want to be full-time; they want to be part-time and they want to have their freedom. They want to work with lots of people. They want to make a dance but then they want to make a film but then they want to do this or do that. It’s a very, very different sensibility we’re seeing in the strands of this new world. It’s so hybridized and I think we’re going to play that out for a while.”

“At first, [Young Jean Lee] envisioned The Shipment as a hip-hop dance piece. It failed completely. It was designed to make the mostly white audience uncomfortable, she said. Instead, they loved it. … ‘It was one of the worst artistic experiences of my life – seeing all the black people walk out and the white people happy, so happy.'”

Said the aristocratic 80-year-old Spaniard, a longstanding and beloved guest conductor with several top U.S. orchestras, “After meeting with my doctors, … I have to recognize publicly that I have cancer … and the moment to quit professional matters has come.”

McBride’s A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing defeated the favorite, Donna Tartt’s 771-page The Goldfinch, as well as titles by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Jhumpa Lahiri for the £30,000 award formerly known as the Orange Prize.

The Melbourne property – full price $4.7 million – will be used as a boarding school for the company’s young students. Yet with most of Australia’s large arts organizations having to absorb big budget cuts, this particular budgetary line item has raised eyebrows.

The donors filed a court motion says that the donors took advantage of tax benefits by giving art and money to the nonprofit, and that they “could face potentially significant negative tax consequences” if the art were to remain with the city.

Ian Dean, editor of computer graphics magazine 3D World, told the BBC the move “could be seen as a reaction to the rise of alternatives such as Arnold,” but that Disney/Pixar are also looking to “build a community”.

“Content thieves attract visitors with the promise of free downloads and streams of the latest hit movies, TV shows and songs. Then they profit by pulling in advertising from around the Internet, often concealing their illicit activities so advertising brands remain unaware.”

“An advertisement was posted on a Facebook group for professional dancers to take part in a one-day rehearsal and subsequent flash mob as part of a viral video for the brand. However, when Coca-Cola was confronted about its plans, it emerged that the only payment dancers would receive would be gifts and soft drinks.”

The nine-bill package, passed with large bipartisan majorities, “makes pensioners as whole as possible and protects the Detroit Institute of Arts from having its artwork seized and sold off,” said one state senator during debate.

“The ebook will overtake the paperback and hardback as Britons’ preferred format for reading their favourite novels by 2018, according to a report. The UK consumer ebook market – which excludes professional and educational books – is forecast to almost triple from £380m to £1bn over the next four years.”

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